Though I Know I Should be Wary
by 4ever-A-Nightmare
Summary: You're never too young to die, less a poltergeist has something to say about it.
1. Chapter 1

"Though I know I should be wary, still I venture someplace scary. Ghostly hauntings I turn loose, Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice! BEETLEJUICE!"

In full death and color, Beetlejuice appeared. He turned to greet his best-friend, and saw…no-one. Confused, the ghost with the most did a full circle looking for his friend. There was no one there.

"Lyds," Beetlejuice asked, surveying the room, "Where are you babes?"

He checked his watch; the funny thing is she still should be at school. Beetlejuice began searching her room, if she was going to try and scare him, or pull a trick on him; he was going to get the upper hand. As he thought that, he turned into a hand that was higher than another hand, turning back to normal, he began his search.

After a good half an hour or though, not only was her room empty, it seemed like the whole house was. Of course, her parents were probably at work, or whatever they did, but still he wondered who called him. He walked back upstairs and sat down on Lydia's bed, trying to piece together the puzzle.

"The transports could be out of function, and she could have called me from somewhere else… Well, if that were the case, she would be at school!"

Happy with his new found revelation, Beetlejuice transported to the school, and became the clock on the wall for obvious reasons such as "Ah, a ghost," while funny, it had its consequences, especially if he did appearing acts near Lydia while she was in public. She didn't like to lie to Burp and Prude, but she did so quite a few times to cover his hide when it came to those appearances.

As he looked out through the clock, he found the entire classroom empty. Now normally Beetlejuice wasn't a worry wart, but two empty places too many and he was starting to feel a little edgy. He attempted to ease his nerves by checking the rest of the school, to find that it still indeed had people in it.

Maybe some of these people knew where Lydia was, but how to find out.

It must have been a lucky chance, but he spotted a hall monitor and appeared behind her in his infamous disguise of Betty Juice. He tapped her on the shoulder causing her to whirl around.

"_Excuuuuuse_ me, but I'm Betty Juice and I accidently slept in today, and I was wondering where Miss Shannon, and the rest of her class could be. I _so_, don't want to miss any more precious class time."

Gosh, Beetlejuice sometimes questioned why he still used this disguise, when Lydia was in her last year, when she was eighteen, he would so use this disguise for something useful, a little mischief before they went to Physical Exercise (Education) (but if he did that kind of stuff now he would terminate his friendship). The girl stared at him, and his disgusting female version, before speaking.

"Well, it wasn't smart of you to sleep in, Miss Shannon will be really mad, but I guess it's better than not showing up at all. They went to Peaceful Pines' bridge and woods, you know that little park and bridge to the west of here."

Smiling, rather gruesomely though, he thanked her. She nodded, but as she walked off, she began muttering to herself things such as "that is the ugliest girl I have ever layed eyes on."

Beetlejuice heard the comments, but put them to the side. Those compliments could be rewarded later. He transported to the described location, and looked around. Was it supposed to be a showcase of the vehicles that appear when 911 is called; he knew they had to learn about that kind of crap, but did they need to go to a park and call the vehicles to see them?

He – still in the disguise of Betty Juice – approached the crowd warily, not sure how to act or fit into this situation. Coming closer to the crowd, he found in fact they were split into little groups, not surprising, and the first group he came upon and eavesdropped on was Claire's and her little clique's group. They were positioned around a sobbing Claire wrapped in a towel.

"I-I-I just like f-f-fell into the, like, c-c-cold water, and it was, like, j-just so wet." She sobbed, whimpering like a puppy.

Her friends all took turns comforting her, with meaningless comments.

"I bet."

"I'm so sorry."

"I know, like, you must feel so bad."

Claire sobbed even more, and gripped the towel tighter.

"Then, with the w-water going over my h-head, I, like, thought I was going to d-die, and like, not even in my most fashionable clothes. It w-would have been, so like, c-cruel."

Beetlejuice gagged, and was about to walk away when…

"Then that, D-Deetz girl, Lydia, like, grabbed my w-wrist and p-p-pulled me out of the water, and I was like, so thankful."

His attention snapped back to Claire, but she had broken down completely, realization of her near death experience setting in, and she didn't say anything else.

A bit frustrated by his lack of knowledge still, Beetlejuice drifted over to another group, this time Burp and Prude's. They were sobbing even worse than Claire.

Bertha looked up, and stared at Betty Juice (Beetlejuice), and he shifted.

"Where were you today? Lydia could have used your help."

Beetlejuice didn't see why he being there would have helped with the Claire problem, and saving her. Using his best, "I'm worried," expression, "What happened?"

Prudence straightened up, to look at him, and frowned.

"Oh, hi Betty, Lydia is…is…" Prudence broke down crying again, and Bertha helped comfort her. When neither straightened up and showed any sense of going to, he moved on to the third group he hoped to get information from.

Delia and Charles sat on a park bench, Charles leaning forward, his head in hands, and Delia rubbing his back.

"It's alright Charles, they said there was still a chance, and you know Lydia… They didn't find her which gives us a fifty/fifty chance."

Charles started crying harder, his body shook with the sobs.

Beetlejuice approached them. Delia looked up at him.

"Betty, I was wondering where you were."

Beetlejuice twisted the skirt he was wearing, a bit worried with all of this talk of…

"What happened?'

"While they were crossing the bridge one of the girls, Claire, dropped her bracelet, and in an effort to catch it, toppled over the bridge. Lydia went in down to the side of the river a little ways, and grabbed Claire's wrist before she could be caught in the strong current where the fork in the water was. After pulling her out, Lydia slipped and fell in, and…got caught in the current."

It was the first straight answer Beetlejuice had got, and now he was wishing for the vague answers.

"Is…is she dead?"

"They don't know. She fell about forty-five minutes ago, so they haven't ruled it out, but…" Delia stopped when Charles began crying harder.

Beetlejuice, extremely worried, realized what had happened. Lydia must have called his name, and due to her location in water and not on a stable surface, the transport system between the realms had just dropped him off at her house. They changed the transport system to that way, after many ghosts going back to the real world to do 125 years of haunting, found themselves in a pool or underwater haunting a lake.

Beetlejuice, quickly rushed down to the water side, and as soon as he was out of sight of the living mortals, he snapped back to regular form. He floated above the water, and followed the current described by Delia, and quickly scanned.

They told him when he was dead, that his heart would never hammer in his chest, it would never beat again. They were wrong. His heart felt like it was going to break out of his chest and go on its own search for Lydia.

He found the end of the current, and stopped before it. The current ended in a waterfall, and not just a regular waterfall, the kind that plunged into a cave.

"LYDIA!"

**This story is in honor of a fellow classmate who broke his neck while tubing, while it has no direct connection, not many people are aware of how easy it is for a person to die, no matter the age. **_Note: the boy was the same age as me, fourteen. He never even got to go to his first day of high school_**. **

**You decide, I can continue this fan fiction, or I can leave it right here.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Depressing thoughts in this chapter, and a mostly depressing chapter. Hint: mostly. Don't question when Beetlejuice asks questions. If you feel sad by this chapter, let me know, because it makes me happy to know I wrote good enough that you felt just as bad as Beej, except don't do what he did, because that's not good. :(**

Abnormally creepy, a nuisance rather than help, and town pest, Beetlejuice was far from perfect. Yet, Lydia was the one person who never wanted perfect from him, never asked for him to change an aspect about him. Now, she was in grave danger, graver than all the times he put her in trouble, albeit, this time it wasn't his fault, but he felt just as guilty.

Guilt, the forbidden G word, Love, the forbidden L word, and all of those forbidden words went hand in hand when he thought about Lydia.

Without much consideration, as all who knew Beetlejuice knew he never thought anything out. Beetlejuice plunged straight into the cave, ignoring the cold onslaught of raging bitter cold water. The cave's waterfall went down at a slope with various pointy rocks, dangerous stalagmites rising out of the water like spears, and he anxiously scanned them, worried he'd find Lydia's body dead tucked in a cluster of them. He eventually began floating above the raging current, avoiding stalactites as he flew through the air. Every sharp turn, and pointy rock crushed his dead heart in his chest, and he sucked unneeded breaths, his yellow eyes glowing with worry.

After a while he reached a dead end that dropped into a quickly filling pool with multiple ledges and stalagmites in it. He couldn't find her, scan after scan revealed nothing. Breathing hard, and soaking wet, he floated around feeling lost. Hoping to see Lydia somewhere, alive, and capable of being saved.

"LYDIA!" Beetlejuice shouted, hearing his own voice being thrown back at him. There was no response, and he bit his lip, nervously looking around.

"LYDIA?" He shouted again, less faith in his voice, his shoulders tightened, his throat closed.

The only sound that greeted him was rushing water, and he looked around at the already dangerously high pool, and he began floating back up, head lowered. Part of him cried for Lydia, of course that part of him was on the inside, part of him grieved the loss of his best friend, that part was on the outside and was slowly starting to cry, and a very small part of him didn't want to make the climb back up and just sit there, and let himself be torn apart by the water.

Unfortunately, that small part of him was the only part he could hear. The ghoul sunk against a wall, and he could feel the cold raging water inches away from his feet. Was this how Lydia felt? If she survived the rocks, the stalagmites, the stalactites, and the water before she hit the pool, did she feel the cold water seeping into her clothes, through her skin, and deeper till it hit the bone? Did she feel her muscles giving out, her will to live lessening? No, Lydia wouldn't give up, she would fight till the water beat her into the blackness.

"Lydia," Beetlejuice whispered, "I'm sorry, and I l-"

He stopped as he thought he heard a cough, a small weak cough. Quickly the ghoul shot up, almost slicing himself in two on a stalactite. Full of hope, he scanned the waters and ledges, but it diminished when he saw nothing.

"Babes?" Beetlejuice whispered, shaking.

Another cough sounded and he heard what sounded like his name. Beetlejuice focused on the sound, turning into a striped bat to help himself focus. He let out a small bat cry, using his new found echolocation to quickly pinpoint a small form huddled in the corner of the area. Faster than light, he darted to that spot, turning into his ghostly form.

Clinging to a ledge with both of her small, bluish, hands. Lydia floated, submerged in water up to her shoulders.

"B-B-Beej," she croaked, faintly audible with the raging waters in the background. Beetlejuice stared at her, fearing severe hypothermia with her almost purple lips and the dangerously off tint of blue in her skin.

"Babes." He said, staring at his young friend. Then, with a quick motion, he had pulled her out of the water and into his arms. She shook violently in that instant, but relaxed a bit, still shaking a lot, but more relaxed in his arms.

"C-C-C-Can't f-f-feel mmmmmy f-f-f-f-feet." She stuttered, her entire body shaking.

He hated to ask her this, but he felt she had a better chance at survival if they went to the Neitherworld.

"Can you say my name Babes?"

In answer, she tried to smile, but was racked with coughs. Beetlejuice took off his jacket and wrapped it around her, ignoring the chill that was piercing his body. Lydia took a shaky breath, and opened her mouth to try and utter out the three words that would save the both of them, as the way they came in would be impossible to go out.

"B-B-B-Beetlejuice, B-B-Beetlejuice, B-Beetlejuice!" Lydia whispered.

A swirl and a flash, and Beetlejuice found himself back at the roadhouse with Lydia still in his arms. He put her down in his coffin bed, tucking a blanket around his form. A light bulb flashed above his head, and he juiced her wet clothes off and replaced them with her usual Neitherworld outfit, with an added layer. He began rubbing her cold feet as well, doing everything he remembered from the time he got Neitherworld frostbite.

Eventually he decidedly juiced another layer of socks on her feet and he gently shook her shoulder, thinking she had fallen asleep. She didn't wake up, and he noticed she had stopped shaking. Again, he shook her shoulder, hoping she would wake-up, the same results as the first. He bent his head down to her ear, and panic shot through him.

Beetlejuice hadn't felt Lydia's cold breath against his ear, she wasn't breathing.

**Boo me, a really short chapter, oh well. Ya know the drill, review this story or no chapter three, but this time, there's a bonus. Get to the lucky number in three days or less, and the next chapter will come out the day after the lucky number is reached. I was only hoping for 3 reviews in the first place, the reason it took me so long to update was I didn't have time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I should've updated after 13. I'm facing harshness writing this ending. Maybe I lied.**

**Thank-you for reviews and sorry for the wait!**

* * *

Beetlejuice panicked. Taking her back to the roadhouse had not been a good idea, he didn't know anything about rescuing people, or how breather's bodies worked. He didn't know how she was supposed to resume breathing. If he had let her with those guys in the ambulance they would know what to do, they were trained for this kind of stuff.

He couldn't just juice himself back, he needed someone to say his name on that side, or someone alive to say his name. Two things he couldn't get to, or find. The only other option was to overuse his juice which was something that could get him into serious trouble. And he meant the serious kind. Not the minor, they'll give him a second chance, but the kind that would get him locked in the prison beneath sandworm, where demons were.

Once, he had worked for the government and they had warned him of where he sat. So much power, and no handle on it. He was only a hair away from becoming one of the demons. The old hag that used to mentor him gave him the connection to the mortal world in hopes he would find some tie to humanity, and before she passed on she got her wish. Lydia was creepy, alone, and pushed away by her peers. They met through her close encounter with death, and they had built a bond.

Now she was on her deathbed, and he could get back to the mortal world, let her be saved, but send himself to lock-up for more than six decades. Without her help, he wouldn't be able to defend himself that well and would be stuck there for a century.

His hand found her cold one, and he knew he had to do it. Do the thing that the old hag had told him never to do; say his own name the three times. Heck, Lydia deserved to live, and he wasn't about to let her die.

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." As he said his own name, the Sandworms growled, earthquakes erupted, and the judge's gavel came down far in the distance. He had seven hours in the mortal world before he would be thrown back down to suffer.

Naturally, he switched to his Beetleman form, carrying the limp Lydia. He rushed into the clearing, allowing himself to look dripping wet, and letting her clothes switch back to normal.

"I found her, Betty told me what happened." He panted, letting the paramedics take a hold of her and Lydia's parents see her, to grasp onto hope that their daughter could be alive.

"She's not breathing, move quickly..." One of the paramedics muttered and the rest of their conversations were lost on Beetlejuice's ears and eyes as they moved through the crowd carrying Lydia.

Before anyone could ask him any questions, questions he could not answer, he disappeared into thin air, watching from afar, invisible.

They took her to the Peaceful Pines Hospital where they worked their magic, and she resumed breathing and the signs of frostbite and numbness disappeared, the deathly pallor returning to her normal porcelain skin color. He watched as her parents came in and out repeatedly, Bertha and Prudence came by, even Claire without her groupies, Claire's father who deposited some money on the table, a thank-you for saving their daughter, and finally Beetlejuice appeared after visiting hours were over and the hospital was less busy.

He sat on the edge of her bed, holding her warmer hand, happy with his decision, happy to see her alive. It was 10:00 P.M. and he had two more hours before he wouldn't be able to see Lydia for what was probably forever. She would grow up, forget him, pass away, move on, and he wouldn't see her again.

Beetlejuice sat there for half of his remaining time watching her sleep, occasionally stroking her face, running his hand through her soft black locks of hair, and eventually he drew away. He would go to her house, and leave her a note and the ring he had been saving for her sixteenth birthday.

Ghosting through the halls he stopped in her room, and wrote the note, it would be short, but well meant, and he left it taped to her mirror, the ring sitting under it. With not much time left, he went back to the hospital, to say his last goodbye.

Tucked underneath the blankets of the small cot, he went to the end where her head lay, and he smiled faintly. She was safe, and alive, just what he wanted. With an air of finality, he kissed her briefly on the lips, letting those in the Neitherworld drag him back.

…

It was morning, and after a few brief checks, Lydia was allowed to go home. She was happy, and allowed her parents to smother her the whole day. But a good hour after they tucked her into bed she darted up, and raced to the mirror. Without a pause, she called her friend's name three times. When nothing happened, she looked around and noticed a note taped to the mirror. Lydia turned it around and began reading.

_Lyds,_

_I know that by the time you're reading this I'll be gone; gone beyond your limits, you won't be able to see me anymore. The day I saved you I took a risk, and with a risk, as the law and crabby government officials say, there's a consequence. Your life, and well-being is worth any price. Don't do anything drastic, keep up your photography and hobbies, grow-up babe. Just don't forget me, don't forget our adventures, don't forget to do all those pranks we had planned out. I know I said I'd never use, never feel, never want the "l" word, but Lydia, remember that I do like love you._

_I'm sorry Lyds,_

_B.J._

_P.S. Left you a present, hope ya like it._

Below the note was a silver ring, covered in green spots from age. It's main part was two beetles together, forming a slight sort of circle, with an odd gem in the middle, only found in the Neitherworld. The initials B.J. were inscribed on the gem, and next to it was a hastily scribbled note.

* * *

_**From: The Neitherworld Courthouse; Courtroom {13}; From Accused; {B. Juice}**_

_L,_

_Last message 'fore my trial. Was savin' the ring for yer 16th, but I know I won't be able to send it. Grant me one wish and wear the ring, and never take it off._

_B.J._

_**Do not respond to this message as this is the last message from the accused as he/she is scheduled for exorcism as of {1990, April, 24, 3:51:32 P.M.}**_

* * *

Lydia glanced at the clock, tears falling as it ticked on proclaiming it was 9:42 P.M. April 24th.


End file.
